'The Cult of GDP' - 'The Problem of Growth'

<blockquote>'Only in his final years as CEO of Metro, says Wiegandt, did he begin to have "this uncomfortable feeling" about the consequences of his growth strategy. ... In all the previous years, he says, he never thought about the consequences of his actions...'

- Alexander Jung, The Cult of GDP (page 2), 09/22/2009</blockquote>

<center>China’s empty city: the emperor really has no clothes

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<blockquote>'A. The Problem of Growth


In recent years economists and journalists alike have been heavily emphasizing a new concept—“growth,” and much eco­nomic writing is engaged in a “numbers game” on what per­centage, or “rate of growth,” “we” should have next year or in the next decade. The discussion is replete with comparisons of the higher rate of country X which “we” must hurriedly counter, etc. Amidst all the interest in growth, there are many grave prob­lems which have hardly been touched upon. First and foremost is the simple query: “What is so good about growth?” The econ­omists, discoursing scientifically about growth, have illegitimately smuggled an ethical judgment into their science—an ethical judg­ment that remains unanalyzed, as if it were self-evident. But why should growth be the highest value for which we can strive? What is the ethical justification? There is no doubt about the fact that growth, taken over as another dubious metaphor from biology, “sounds” good to most people, but this hardly constitutes an ade­quate ethical analysis...'
- Murray N. Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State (with Power and Market), (p. 962)</blockquote>